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" Genre is a really great shorthand you can have with an audience. In the same way you can use music to create a connection with an audience, it brings so much of their knowledge of what genre really is to the table. You have a shortcut to connect with them. I really like that. "

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" As a director, there's no natural career progression. So after 'The Wackness,' which was very personal to me, I was very, very picky about what I was going to do next, to the point where I think that I was almost too picky. "

Jonathan Levine

Career

Think

Personal

" I have a cameo in every movie. In '50/50,' I'm in the back of the bus. "

" I have about 100 gigs of music, and I'm always going through thinking about what song I can match to a scene and all that. "

" As a director, your expectation and reality don't always match up, and I think that that's... I think it's a little jarring. "

Jonathan Levine

Reality

Director

" Any time I hear certain songs I put in a movie, I have to not listen to them anymore because I associate them with that movie. They take on that association rather than the association I had when I first heard them. So it's kinda bittersweet to put a song in a movie, honestly. "

" On '50/50,' even though it was 8 million dollars, it was all acting-intensive. "

" I learned some big lessons on my first film, a horror film which was never released in the U.S., even though we sold it to Harvey Weinstein for a lot of money. "

" 'Warm Bodies' was a more long-term thing; I had to write the script, who knew if it was every really going to happen, if I'd find the right actors, and so on, so I grabbed '50/50' because I just fell in love with it. "

" I used to drive a convertible around L.A. a lot. "

" I really like using genre to tell a story about characters but also use it as a Trojan horse to tell social or cultural commentary. That's where the best stuff, especially in the zombie genre, comes out of. "

Jonathan Levine

Horse

Story

" Usually, the kills are almost Wile E. Coyote kind of things in horror movies. "

" For me, I just value my friendships so much. I mean, I love my family, too, but my friends - I have a really special connection with my friends. "

" I was Paul Schrader's assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he's very much about knowing what's going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue - the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out. "

" I think people will always want to go see a movie, whether it's a comedy and you want to see it and laugh with people, or whatever. "

" To me, using music is creating a shorthand with an audience. And I love music so much. "

Jonathan Levine

Love

Music

" To be a director, you have to think you're the best. Ever since I went to film school, I imagined that you have to think deep down that you want to be Martin Scorsese or you want to be P.T. Anderson. Like, am I as good as those guys? Absolutely not. I feel like I keep learning, and I feel like I keep getting better. "

" I kind of viewed '50/ 50' and 'Warm Bodies' both as my next films after 'The Wackness.' In my head, I was just like, 'I'll try the big, fun, adventure-weird movie, and I'll do the small, heartfelt comedy-drama, and one of them will probably work out, and I'll get to work more.' "

" I like zombie movies, and I like genre movies a lot. To watch. Less so to make, I think. But I grew up on that stuff. I would just grow up watching a lot of horror movies, a lot of slasher movies and then zombie movies. "

" I have a lot of friends with bad taste in music - some might say that I have bad taste in music. "

" The way 'Coming Home' uses music in general is incredible, but the final song that really kind of crescendos all of the emotion that the whole movie has kind of been building to is this song called 'Once I Was' by Tim Buckley. "

" I love subverting expectations or playing with the sort of unspoken kind of connections that the audience has. "

" I really like it when movies take a song and use it to counterpoint a scene. "

Jonathan Levine

Scene

Movies

" I'm always walking around with headphones on, creating my own soundtracks to whatever the day is. I think I have a poppy sensibility. "

" In rehearsals, I like to create an honest environment that is kinda free and fun. "

" My first real television-watching experience was when I watched 'L.A. Law,' like, at 10 o'clock Thursday nights with my parents. They would let me stay up late. "

" As I continue to evolve as a filmmaker, I'm going to continue to do different stuff. "

" 'Warm Bodies' - I was contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 movie. But, like, I wanted it to be PG-13 because it's for younger people, and I don't want them not to be able to see it. I mean, you have to kind of think about the marketplace as well. "

" After 'Mandy Lane,' I didn't really know what to do because I didn't know anyone who'd made a feature yet. "

" Do I wish I was Martin Scorsese? Yeah. But am I really proud of the movies I've made and really happy that I get to keep making them? Yes. "

" It's rare that movies can sort of capture the tone of life; movies always feel like they have to be one thing or another. "